Residents begin to dig through what remains of their homes and businesses

Emilie Arkin

Tuesday

May 8, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 8, 2007 at 8:19 AM

In most spots it’s difficult to tell where the debris from one home stops and the next begins. GateHouse Media News Service writer Emily Arkin spent the day Monday walking through the destroyed town of Greensburg, Kansas, talking to residents as they dug through what remained of their homes and businesses.

As residents returned to town for the first time Monday, they found a scene more alarming than the sirens that sounded Friday night alerting them to the powerful tornado that leveled Greensburg.A heavily damaged Kiowa County Courthouse on the south end of town and aconcrete silo to the north serve as two of the largest remaining landmarksfor the town’s 1,400 residents after the F-5 tornado with estimated winds of205 mph swept a mile-wide path through the town.In place of street signs, spray paint on the pavement directs drivers andpedestrians. Pummeled vehicles peek out from the rubble and scatteredremains of homes. Trees stripped of their leaves and broken like twigs lineblock after block.In most spots it’s difficult to tell where the debris from one home stopsand the next begins.As Susan Staats sifted through photos dug from the remains of her MainStreet house, she said, “It’s so overwhelming. You don’t even know where tostart.“You have people coming by to offer help, but you don’t know where to begin,so you don’t know how they can help.”She and her family dug through the rubble Monday, the first timepeople not associated with search and rescue efforts were allowed inGreensburg since the town was evacuated Friday. A young man was able to retrieve items from the family’s destroyed vehicles. And despite warnings against entering thehome, sitting at least 15 feet from the basement it once topped, Staats’husband made his way into the wreckage.Rhonda Hammond didn’t have the option to enter her new home on South Walnut.Instead, she dug through shards of the wood home, finding the occasionaltreasure.“I’m finding more than I thought I would,” she said, showing off severalbracelets she had unearthed. “It’s sad. It’s like the stuff that made it youdon’t want, and the stuff you do want is destroyed.”Hammond also had found several rings buried in her muddy yard.“But, you know, I can’t go over every inch of the yard,” she said, knowingthat she will eventually have to let many of her belongings go.The one thing Hammond desperately wanted to locate one way or the other washer dog Toby. Sadly, she found the pet dead in the debris.The last time George and Kay Towner of East Wisconsin Avenue saw their homeit was still standing. But that was Friday night.“I’m just hoping it’s still standing,” George Towner said, noting that itwas in bad shape at the time.The couple had already located their van, though. Once parked in front of thetown’s senior center, where they took cover during the tornado, it perchedup top the toppled block walls of the building afterward.In all of the chaos, residents of the town were finding support.Owners of one business, one of only three remaining, have openedtheir building to folks who have recovered their belongings but have nowhere to store the items.The Staats family has found temporary housing in nearby Pratt through a local contractorwith an open rental.And an overwhelmed Hammond has a sister helping her drudge through herbelongings to decide what is worth saving.At the same time, residents are trying to figure out how to balance theirgrief and their need to move forward.Staats, a teacher in town, said she knows a school custodian and a friendare among the 10 who died in the tornado.“It’s hard. You want to be there for (the families), but you need to behere,” she said, continuing her search for whatever her family could find.